CruzinThots: Casting Pearls Before Swine, or Just another Wayang Coolie?

Monday, 19 January 2009

Casting Pearls Before Swine, or Just another Wayang Coolie?

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But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings.
We court corruption when we leave society devoid of belief.

-Jeff Miller

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"In this region only Papua New Guinea is more unequal. We have the most unequal income distribution in Southeast Asia .................. This is of a piece with the vital economic confidence needed to unleash credit, investment and consumption, and get everyone working. We need to restore confidence in Malaysia."
Tengku Razaleigh's speech at ASLI Conference Jan 15, 2009

Sounds Good. Probably would look good, too. However to me, it sounds more like Ku Li's political posturing – ala his “Ketuanan Melayu”defense some time back.
Plenty of words, with little substance – like a lover's sweet nothings.

Although much of what he says is true and it is more than economic development, one could be forgiven if one thought that Ku Li appears to be evading the real issue. After all, words are cheap, and may not quite be worth the spittle.
Indeed - the devil does quote scriptures ...

That is what these “profound” speech is all about – just a rehash of the same old wise words, to lend some credibility to an immoral leadership, in a crumbling regime which is intellectually bankrupt and epitomized by deceit & corruption.
He makes a show of the the apparent "awareness" that he provides on behalf of Umno. These "golden nuggets" were mouthed, while Najib was launching "corruption lotteries" on the east coast, where according to NIEI's declaration, there was prevalent , Institutionalization of Electoral Bribery: Political Bribery and Political Promise of Bribery amounting to RM 1 Billion

The real issue here isn't so much “building Malaysia” and as to how one can improve on "governance"/ confidence by creating more “wayang kulit”, or fend off the impending economic disaster and what not.

The crux of the matter here, is nothing more than whether the “bumiputra” created for political expediency is willing to destroy the corrupt “infrastructure” that it has built around itself. What we see here in Ku Li's speech is the absence of comments on the culture of greed & corruption that permeates the very institution that he is part of.
There is little introspection (on the level of integrity in the corridors of power and civil service), with plenty of high-flung ideas and plans. By the looks of it, they are far from willing to forego what they perceive as their “right” to plunder, and what Ku Li proposes is nothing more than the frothy self-righteous political correctness which Umno/Bn is so used to playing out to hoodwink the general public.

The fundamental flaw in the Umno/BN philosophy is its idea of "ethics/morality". To minions in this unholy alliance, they have only one value - greed. This is compounded by the sloth they exhibit, in addition the the other five deadly sins.
When these "values" of the Umno/BN regime is promoted by the BTN thruough the indoctrination of the civil service, any amount of lip service & preaching by Ku Li amounts to nothing more than hypocrisy!

Let me give you an example - public service sectors are "corporatized", apparently to improve services. Upon corporatization, clauses are inserted into agreements which render the government the guarantor, while being helpless in deciding on management. These "corporations" now become goldmines for politicians to siphon off "profits" and show losses, so that the taxpayer bears costs.

A simple, case in point is that of a certain "corporation" - this corporation has happened to be able to reduce "operating costs" to the tune of 500%- 1000% in a certain service it provided. The current suppliers who have enabled that much "savings" however have not been paid after more than 5 months, when the bills are to be settled in 2months, as per agreement!!
Now comes the best part of this story - all the earlier "suppliers" who made exorbitant charges in the pst were promptly paid!!!
Why does this happen? My guess is that those who are entrusted to make the payments demanded kickbacks from the approved payments.

It is against the backdrop of "successful entrepreneurs" such as these (whom people like Ku Li would want to preserve, to showcase the "success" of the NEP) that these wise words are mouthed by this political has been.
This is the "business" ethics which the "bumiputra" elite has been taught, under the (Umno/BN's)NEP, by none other than agencies like BTN since the time of Mahathir. They have been indoctrinated to believe that it is their God-given right to rob the people of the right to a world-class public service. This kind of "highway robbery" is deemed "halal" through various rationalization processes and the outward religiosity they exhibit (through the repression, suppression and victimisation of "those deemed unworthy").

In short, the prime "value" promoted by the Umno/BN elite, is nothing more than Hypocrisy. If anyone had any iota of sincerity in them, they'd see the futility in dining with robbers, so as to preach and reform them.

“According to the World Bank, Malaysia’s share of GDP contributed by services was 46.2% in 1987. How much did you think it was twenty years later in 2007? 46.4%.
How much do you think the real wages of our workers grew between 1994 and 2007? By 2.6% in the domestic sector and by 2.8% in the export sector.” - So Ku Li says.

This is of course a thinly veiled swipe at Mahathir's "economic masterplan", after their much publicized fallout.

However, that Ku Li has knowingly gone back on his principles to rejoin the Umno Baru, despite being publicly “whipped” & humiliated by Mahathir (sorry guys- not in the “whodude” or “KissArse” sense here, okay), says a lot about him. One can only guess the price of his “loyalty”, as once mentioned by Mahathir.

Ku Li is now simply another has been trying to show the "compassionate" face of pirates in regime lead by robber barons. In doing so, he makes himself just another "coolie" to these heartless plunderers He'd probably do better, should he walk the path trodden by the likes of Zaid Ibrahim, instead dishing out these “sweet nothings” to the general public, while lying in bed with Umno.

He would also do well to admit and remind Umno that the NEP has been a failure, in that it has created pirates who plunder the nations wealth through legalized robbery, and mediocre education. The people have been bribed into submission to corruption, and are oblivious to the fact that they have shortchanged in the process - it is what Ku Li proposes to perpetuate with his beautiful words and "wayang Kuli".